Citation Analysis:How and Why

Karen KohnCollections Analysis Librarian

Temple University

Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition

November 4, 2015

Sources of Data Faculty – published articles

Faculty – published monographs

Master’s Theses

Doctoral Dissertations

Undergraduate Theses

Grant Proposals

Sources of Data - Faculty Faculty – published articles

Faculty – published monographs

They know what is important in their field. Grad students’ research interests often mirror faculty’s, so these citations could also represent grad student needs.

May be hard to find a comprehensive list of these. What to do if co-authored? Stronger knowledge base could lead to citing older standards and missing other important works, which could be useful to students. May be citing what is in their own collections.

Useful for humanities faculty, who may focus on writing monographs rather than articles.

Same as above Science faculty would have very few published books compared to humanities. Can’t be found by searching Web of Science. Would need a large time span in order to include as many faculty as possible.

Sources of Data - Students Doctoral Dissertations

Master’s Theses

Undergraduate Theses

Usually easy to collect. They are leaving. Will future students have the same areas of focus?

More students per year than doctoral. Some departments may not offer doctorates.

If you are not a research institution, these may be your primary users.

They may not be citing the best resources. Least knowledge of their discipline. Most likely to have errors in their citations.

Assumptions Your users are citing the best resources for their

purposes. Therefore if something is cited, it is important.

Your users are willing to use Interlibrary Loan or other methods to obtain resources your library does not have.

What was used in the past will be used in the future.

ExampleWants to study first-year students.

Do we have enough resources for them?

Are they citing what we teach them to?

Are they citing academic resources?

Do they over-use the free web?

Example Do we have enough

resources for them?

Are they citing what we teach them to?

Are they citing good resources?

Do they over-use the free web?

What is the citation? Journal/book/website

name

Year

Do we have it?

What is the class?

What was taught? Catalog

Article databases

Web or Library resource?

Which student?

Examplefirst draft of database design

Citation ID

Resource Name

Year Resource Type

Do we have it?

Course Instruction goals

Student

Database Design Principles1. Every row must be unique

• Think about “What is this table about?” If it’s a table of journals, it should list each journal once. If it’s a table of citations, it should list each citation once.

2. Data should be atomic• Break it down into pieces

3. Data should be single-valued, i.e. one value per cell

4. Don’t put the same information in multiple tables

5. Avoid calculations

Examplesecond draft of database design

Citation ID

Resource Name

Year

Resource Type

Do we have it?

Course

Instruction: catalog (y/n)

Instruction: databases (y/n)

Student

Example: Data All In One TableItem # Call

Number

Subject

Program

School Subject Librarian

Email Address

1 HF Commerce

Business Fox School of Business

Adam abcd@

2 KF1000-1395

Commercial Law

Business Fox School of Business

Adam abcd@

3 BM Judaism Religion College of Liberal Arts

Fred efgh@

4 BV Practical Theology

Religion College of Liberal Arts

Fred efgh@

5 HQ Family Sociology College of Liberal Arts

Greg jklm@

6 ND Painting Visual Arts

Tyler School of Art

Jill nopq@

Example: Data in Relational Databases

Subject Librarian

Email Address

Adam abcd@

Fred efgh@

Greg jklm@

Jill nopq@

Program School Subject Librarian

Business Fox School of Business

Adam

Religion College of Liberal Arts

Fred

Sociology College of Liberal Arts

Greg

Visual Arts Tyler School of Art

Jill

Item # Call Number

Subject Program

1 HF Commerce Business

2 KF1000-1395

Commercial Law

Business

3 BM Judaism Religion

4 BV Practical Theology

Religion

5 HQ Family Sociology

6 ND Painting Visual Arts

Examplethird draft of database design

Citation ID

Resource Name

Year

Resource Type

Do we have it?

Course

Instruction: catalog (y/n)

Instruction: databases (y/n)

Student

On the worksheet –

Step 1. Mark all the repeaters. For example, “Every time the program is Business, the librarian is Adam.”

Step 2. Name the tables. For instance, Business will go in a table of Programs.

Step 3. List, or draw, what goes in each table. Remember, a Table of programs will list each program once.

Creating a Table•

• New > [Type a Name] > Select a Location > Create

•Right-click on Add New Field, click Rename Column

•Once you’ve named it, another column will appear to the right, and you can name this one the same way.

•When you have all your columns, Save.

Creating a Second Table Create > Table

Start naming the columns, like you did before, until you get to one that is going to be linked to another table.

Instead of typing in the name, click Datasheet > LookUp Column

Select ‘I want the lookup column to look up the values in a table or query.’ Next.

Select the table where it will look up the values. Next.

Select the field. Click >, then Next.

Sort order does not matter. Click Next.

Width does not matter. Click Next.

Name the column.

Finish.

Check out what you just did! Look at your second table. The Lookup column you

created now has a dropdown menu. The list in the dropdown is coming from the column in Table 1 that you linked this column to. (Type something in Table 1 and save it to see how this works.)

Try clicking Relationships in the top menu bar. It looks like your drawing!

Creating a Multiple Choice Column

Click Datasheet > Lookup column as before. Instead of ‘I want the lookup column to look up the values in a table or query,’ select ‘I will type in the values that I want.’

Type them in one column. Next, etc.

Interpreting the Data Who are your patrons?

What do you know about their behavior?

In what ways do their citations not help with collection development?

What other context might you need in order to know what your numbers mean?

Sample Data - Fields Student

Level (Master’s or Doctoral)

Journal Name

Peer-Review Status

Subject (of journal)

Author

Title (of article or book)

Year

Resource Type (Format)

Access (Library, Free Online, No Access)

Sample Data - Questions What percentage of journals cited by Masters (or

Doctoral) students are peer-reviewed?

What percentage of citations does the library have access to?

Which journals are cited the most?

What is the range of years the students are citing? What year do citations drop off?

What a Query Looks Like

How is a Query Different from a Table?

• It doesn’t auto-generate a unique field on the left.

• You can’t type data into it.• It will include information that repeats between

columns, e.g. Student 15 is a Doctoral Student.

Designing a Query Create > Query Wizard > Simple Query Wizard

Select the table, then the field, then >

When you have all the fields you want, click Finish.

Click External Data > (export to Excel)

Select where you want to save the Excel file.

Click OK.